The short version

Ben Thompson predicted on January 1, 2024: “Google Cloud Next 2024 was Google’s most impressive assertion yet that it has the AI scale advantage and is determined to use it. ... Google could do more than just win the chatbot war: it is the one company that could make a universal assistant. The question is if the company is willing…

Prediction by

Ben Thompson

On January 1, 2024

“Google Cloud Next 2024 was Google’s most impressive assertion yet that it has the AI scale advantage and is determined to use it. ... Google could do more than just win the chatbot war: it is the one company that could make a universal assistant. The question is if the company is willing to risk it all.”

Follow-up

Google has significantly expanded Gemini across its ecosystem from 2024-2026, leveraging its AI scale, which supports Thompson's thesis about their advantage and potential. However, by mid-2026, a fully unified "universal assistant" controlling all third-party services and devices, as broadly implied by Thompson, is still under development, indicating that while Google is moving in the predicted direction, the full realization of a truly universal assistant has yet to materialize.

From the High Caliber AI network — see the AI for PR module in the course.